Oedipus Rex – The Conflict, Climax and Resolution a climax. Thomas Van Nortwick in The Meaning of a Man's Life describes Oedipus' tragic flaw: As ruler, he is the father of Thebes and its citizens, and like a father, he will care for his "children." We already see the supreme self-confidence and ease of command in Oedipus, who can not only consider other people's children as his own, but also be the father of men older than himself. But beyond that, there is, in the tense posture of the citizens, an allusion to prostration before a divinity. We “cling to your altars,” said the priest. . . . The fact that he also exudes divine mastery in the eyes of his subjects only strengthens the heroic portrait. . . .(21-22).The "divine mastery" to which Van Nortwick refers is the same mastery that Creon, in his final lines, points to as the cause of the tragic dimension of the protagonist's life: "Do not desire mastery in all, / For the mastery that raised you was your scourge and brought about your downfall. Oedipus' total mastery of the investigation resulting from the declaration of the Delphic oracle, yes, his forceful "conduct" of the investigation against the wishes of Jocasta, Teiresias, the messenger and shepherd, ultimately sounds the death knell of the fall of King Oedipus. Abrams says that the conflict is between the protagonist and the antagonist (225). Does the antagonism within Oedipus take the form of his “divine mastery,” as Creon believed? Or is the antagonist strange/wyrd/fate, such that the oracle demonstrated the power of the gods to predestinate their creatures? Frank B. Jevons in “In...... middle of paper ...... shers, 1999. Benardete, Seth. “Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles. » In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Ehrenberg, Victor. “Leaders of Sophoclea: Oedipus. » In Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Jevons, Frank B. “In the Tragedy of Sophoclea, Humans Create Their Own Destiny.” » In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. by F. Storr. no page.http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOediVan Nortwick, Thomas. Oedipus: the meaning of a masculine life. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.

Essay / Oedipus Rex – The Conflict, Climax and Resolution a climax. Thomas Van Nortwick in The Meaning of a Man's Life describes Oedipus' tragic flaw: As ruler, he is the father of Thebes and its citizens, and like a father, he will care for his "children." We already see the supreme self-confidence and ease of command in Oedipus, who can not only consider other people's children as his own, but also be the father of men older than himself. But beyond that, there is, in the tense posture of the citizens, an allusion to prostration before a divinity. We “cling to your altars,” said the priest. . . . The fact that he also exudes divine mastery in the eyes of his subjects only strengthens the heroic portrait. . . .(21-22).The "divine mastery" to which Van Nortwick refers is the same mastery that Creon, in his final lines, points to as the cause of the tragic dimension of the protagonist's life: "Do not desire mastery in all, / For the mastery that raised you was your scourge and brought about your downfall. Oedipus' total mastery of the investigation resulting from the declaration of the Delphic oracle, yes, his forceful "conduct" of the investigation against the wishes of Jocasta, Teiresias, the messenger and shepherd, ultimately sounds the death knell of the fall of King Oedipus. Abrams says that the conflict is between the protagonist and the antagonist (225). Does the antagonism within Oedipus take the form of his “divine mastery,” as Creon believed? Or is the antagonist strange/wyrd/fate, such that the oracle demonstrated the power of the gods to predestinate their creatures? Frank B. Jevons in “In...... middle of paper ...... shers, 1999. Benardete, Seth. “Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles. » In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Ehrenberg, Victor. “Leaders of Sophoclea: Oedipus. » In Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Jevons, Frank B. “In the Tragedy of Sophoclea, Humans Create Their Own Destiny.” » In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. by F. Storr. no page.http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOediVan Nortwick, Thomas. Oedipus: the meaning of a masculine life. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.

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